The Rocky Horror Picture Show. A fitting farewell to MovieNight.

Love and Life, MovieNight stuff, Movies

This week, I popped my Rocky Horror Picture Show cherry. To me, it had always been one of those “things”; a late night, dressing-up camp-fest that, frankly, didn’t appeal to me. Thanks to Ellen (our defacto curator of musicals) for suggesting this one. This suggestion was met with a similar skepticism to the one she made for last year’s season finale, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, but given the success of that one, it seemed that we should just trust her once again. Good decision. Great MovieNight. Thank you, Ellen!

A couple of days before our finale, I found out that it would no longer be possible to stay in this gorgeous space, which has been home to MovieNight for sixteen seasons. This was inevitable… I’ve been pinching myself for a couple of years already (just to check that I wasn’t dreaming about being here), and trying to put up a good fight. But… you know what? I’m ready for the next chapter… change will be good.

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Paterson. Driver drives.

MovieNight stuff, Movies

paterson

I felt a bit guilty finally bringing Jim Jarmusch to the MovieNight screen with Paterson, given its currency but, in its essence, this was classic Jarmusch, served up in a beautiful, modern package. Once again, Adam Driver stepped out of his Girls role, and got us to our destination. More, please.

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Get Out. Get out!

Love and Life, Movies

getout

Apparently director Jordan Peele’s inspiration for naming Get Out came from the experience of sitting in a theater, watching a horror movie, and hearing the audience screaming “Get out!” at the screen, as if to impart some sage advice upon a soon-to-be victim. Get Out is lots of fun, surprisingly sparse on the jokes, given the director’s television background. The casting and performances were top notch. Moreover, if one peels (pun intended, of course!) back the skin (also intended), this impressive debut has a lot to say about racism in America. Clever stuff, well presented.

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What We Do in the Shadows? Laugh, in this case.

MovieNight stuff, Movies

shadows

What a great evening! Kiwi director, Taika Waititi, delighted our MovieNight audience once more this season with What We Do in the Shadows (he more recently directed the hysterical Hunt for the Wilderpeople which we screened in November). This time, he appeared in the movie, along with co-director Jemaine Clement (yes… he of Flight of the Conchords!), and magic ensued. Funny. Smart. Funny.

For the second week in a row, Mr. Whitehouse (no, not that guy… this one is intelligent) was called upon to produce an evening-ending round of Sazerac cocktails. This time, he came armed with a bottle of Peychaud’s bitters, an essential ingredient apparently. In fact, Whitehouse refused to refer to last week’s version as a Sazerac at all. He dubbed it a “Sanserac”, the “Sans” part of that eluded to the missing bitters. Yup… this is MovieNight at its finest.

Thanks to Elf for bringing this to my attention in the first place.

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Citizen Kane on the big screen? Check.

Movies

kane

Most of you know that my decision to show this was based upon something I heard on the NPR show Freakonomics, which led me to suspect that many had not seen Orson Welle’s masterpiece, Citizen Kane, on the big screen. Well… it turned out to be a great decision, and CK played to a packed house. The parallels between Charles Kane’s and Donald Trump’s candidacies were chilling and prophetic (it is Trump’s favorite movie, of course), but there are few other similarities. Orson Welles’s character is eloquent and intelligent. The other… not so much.

Along with the many who had not seen this projected, there were a handful who had never seen it at all, or hadn’t finished watching it. The first half an hour or so can be a difficult watch (it’s newsreel format is quite dated and relentless), but once that [necessary] information has been absorbed, we are equipped to be mesmerized by the rest. Is Citizen Kane the best movie ever made (many film buffs attest to this)? To my mind, Casablanca still holds that title…

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